Friday, April 23, 2004

The New York Times > Technology > PC Sales Aid Microsoft, but Legal Expenses Hurt Profits

The New York Times > Technology > PC Sales Aid Microsoft, but Legal Expenses Hurt Profits "Among the positive surprises in what was a generally upbeat report across the board were robust gains for two of the company's main consumer products, Xbox and the MSN online service. Sales of Xbox consoles were up 30 percent over the quarter last year.
"Xbox is still a money loser for Microsoft, but it's important in terms of the installed base," said Rick G. Sherlund, an analyst with Goldman, Sachs.
Lifted by a revival in the wider online advertising market, MSN also turned from loss to profit in the quarter. Online advertising and search revenue soared by 43 percent for the quarter, compared with this time last year, a figure on par with the results reported by rival Yahoo."